The mob generally takes a direct approach to fund raising: something like, “Your money or your kneecaps.” But two weeks ago, the Gambino family took a cue from the world of politics, where big-bucks fund-raisers are key tools of the trade.

The event was a well-attended $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser for Michael “Mikey Y” Yannotti, the mobster who was first acquitted by a jury of two murders, then acquitted in December by Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin of racketeering charges that included the 1992 kidnapping-shooting of the ABC Radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa.

Estimates of the total take vary, but from what several sources have told Gang Land, the benefit grossed between $250,000 and $400,000 to pay for the legal fees incurred by Yannotti, the alleged triggerman in the 1992 assault on Mr. Sliwa, who has criticized the judge’s ruling, which will spare Yannotti from the retrial next month of John A. “Junior” Gotti.

Sources say more than 300 of Yannotti’s closest friends literally paid their respects to Mikey Y at the El Caribe in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, the same catering hall where the late John Gotti hosted a gala 1988 Christmas Party featuring continuous music from two bands and five-foot-tall stuffed animals as party favors.

Unlike that event – a showy celebration by the Dapper Don – the January 11 affair for Yannotti was much more modest, according to knowledgeable Gang Land sources. There was a buffet table, and – figure this one out – no hard liquor was served.

Essentially, the affair “was a beer and wine cocktail party … that lasted about five hours,” said one inside source, who estimated the number of attendees surpassed 350. “It started at seven. People came and went all night. And many who didn’t come sent an envelope.”

Another source, who attended but wasn’t there all night, pooh-poohed the figure, insisting that no more than 200 showed up for the party.

Sources agree the family’s heavy hitters – acting boss John “Jackie Nose” D’Amico, consigliere Joseph “JoJo” Corozzo and his very influential brother, capo Nicholas “Little Nick” Corozzo- were all “no shows.”

But a few “made men” and hundreds of mob associates from around the metropolitan area – the worker bees who toil in the crime family’s gambling, loansharking, extortion, and labor rackets – did make the trek to Mill Basin, sources said.

“They did what they were told,” said one law enforcement source. “They showed up, and they paid their dues.”

Defense lawyer Diarmuid White who engineered Yannotti’s acquittal of the murders at trial and subsequently convinced the trial judge to acquit his client of the racketeering charge that jurors could not decide, did not make it to the fund-raiser.

“I heard there was an event, but really I don’t know a thing about it,” said White, who declined to discuss the amount or source of his fees, which were, he said, paid by check.

Attorney Joseph R. Corozzo, who originally represented Yannotti but was disqualified from the case because of several conflicts of interest – among other things, his father Joseph “JoJo” is the crime family’s consigliere – was one of several lawyers who attended.

“I stopped in for a drink, said hello to his family, and left,” the younger Corozzo said. “I was there about half an hour, maybe a little longer. I’m sure the FBI surveillance tapes will back me up on that,” he cracked.

Mikey Y, who allegedly became a “made man” in 1998, was there only in spirit. These days, he resides in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. Yannotti faces up to 20 years for a racketeering conspiracy conviction that Judge Scheindlin did not overturn. He is expected to be sentenced after Gotti’s retrial, slated to begin February 13, a day before Junior’s 42nd birthday.

Meanwhile, Gotti’s lawyer Charles Carnesi told Gang Land he intended to call “more defense witnesses” and plans a “much more substantial defense” this time, implying that Junior, who expressed a desire to take the stand in his own defense at the first trial but ultimately did not, just might do so this time.

In the first trial, Gotti flip-flopped about testifying several times after the prosecution rested. When pushed for a decision by Judge Scheindlin, he said, “I’m going to follow my head, not my heart, and opt out of this.”

Asked point blank if his client would testify this time, Carnesi ducked, saying, “We expect that we will defend these charges much more aggressively. We’re keeping all our options open.”

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It’s all relative, claims aging and ailing Gambino mobster Edward Garafola, who invoked his son Mario and his brother-in-law Sammy in an unusual motion to avoid a mandatory life sentence he faces in March for the 1990 murder of his cousin Eddie.

In 2004, Garafola pleaded guilty to the murder of Edward Garofalo, a cousin who spelled his name a bit differently, as part of a racketeering enterprise in which he also plotted to kill his brother-in-law, Salvatore “Sammy Bull” Gravano, for turning on the mob.

In an affidavit filed in Manhattan Federal Court, Garafola, 67, concedes that he knew of the plot to kill his cousin Eddie, and “was present when it was planned and did nothing to prevent it.” But Garafola said he never intended to kill him. In fact, he never showed up on the night of the murder, and was “reprimanded” by Sammy Bull for the dereliction of his duty. Gravano and two other turncoats who took part in the murder could attest to his noninvolvement in the slaying, writes Garafola.

Even though he says he “knowingly and unlawfully conspired” to murder cousin Eddie and “did cause this death” when he pleaded guilty, Garafola now states he did not understand the “import of those legal words.” His affidavit asks Judge Richard Casey to rescind his guilty plea to cousin Eddie’s murder and sentence him for extortion and the murder plot against his brother-in-law Sammy, for which he would face a maximum of 20 years.

Garafola writes that he was “reluctant” to move to set aside his plea sooner, out of fear that prosecutors in Brooklyn, who had filed labor racketeering charges against his son Mario shortly before Garafola pleaded guilty, would have treated Mario “more harshly.” Now that Mario has been sentenced to three years, that concern has disappeared.

If he wins his motion and receives 20 years, Garafola won’t be released until 2019, even with credit for time already served. But prosecutor Michael McGovern says that’s too good for him. He says Garafola took part in cousin Eddie’s murder, pleaded guilty to it, and should live the rest of his life in prison.

This column and other news of organized crime will appear later today at www.ganglandnews.com.